Blackstone agrees to purchase GE warehouses in nine U.S. states

Bloomberg News

Published 10:04 pm, Wednesday, January 29, 2014

Blackstone Group, which formed an industrial real estate company in 2010, agreed to buy warehouses and development land in nine U.S. states from General Electric's property unit.

The properties, which account for almost all of GE's industrial real estate holdings, total about 9.6 million square feet, with about half located in Texas, said Nancy Nyikes, a spokeswoman for Norwalk-based GE Capital Real Estate. Purchase price is about $550 million, said a person with knowledge of the deal, who asked not to be identified because the details are private.

Blackstone created IndCor Properties after the financial crisis depressed property values and has built the Chicago-based unit's holdings to more than 100 million square feet through acquisitions. Investors have speculated that IndCor might go public this year or next.

Christine Anderson, a spokeswoman for New York-based Blackstone, declined to comment on the transaction, which was reported earlier Wednesday by newsletter Real Estate Alert.

GE's real estate unit, among the biggest commercial- property investors globally before the financial crisis, shifted its focus back to lending in 2010 and has been taking advantage of a market recovery to sell older investments.